Monday, October 6, 2014

USA vs World - NBC ANW6 Special - Part 4

This is my Part Four Blog of the USA vs The World - ANW 6 Special that
aired on Monday, September 15, 2014. For those who are confused when
this happened.. it was the Final day (Sunday) of the Las Vegas taping
of American Ninja Warrior 6 back in June 15, 2014.

For those who were curious of the orientation of the team positions don't go by this photo! Notice where Team Japan is in this photo on the right.. and notice that Kanno is waiting to go in Stage ONE on the left! LOL

Quick reminder of where we are, since there is no visible scoreboard at the event.. nor timer.. nor audible buzzers.. ehem.. (NBC learned from past years this could be used against them so they are no longer visible). Two heats are completed. We should be at 6/6/3 at this point with 1 heat left with 3 points on the line. However we are at 9/6/0. As far as NBC is concerned, the only way there will be a Final Stage is if USA wins. Points anywhere else and Europe Wins (either by a Landslide of 12 points or by 3 points if Japan took it). Either way, THIS is what was at stake at this point. The Final Stage, a stage that the USA hasn't seen on American soil in 6 years of ANW competition. That.. is important to etch into your mind right now.. especially with the REAL bulls**t about to happen.

Anchor legs for the teams. Ryo for Japan, Sean for Canada.. er.. uhm.. Europe, and Brian for USA.

For those unfamiliar with history, this event is taking place right AFTER Sasuke 30 (that was taped in May, 2014 and ANW was June, 2014) so he's currently the 2-time Finalist after reaching the Final for the 2nd time just a month before this event. To say he's a 3rd Stage specialist.. is the understatement of the century.

Fluff piece.. apparently they couldn't do an interview with him or something. LOL This was from last year (taped in June, 2013 but aired in January, 2014). Last year he won the 3rd stage heat and beat Brian Arnold "narrowly". This is fresh in his mind.

And the first of his 2 finals. This is at least the footage that Comcast/NBC owns. Sasuke 27. Ryo made it to the final in Sasuke 30.

Morimoto tap™

Globe grasp technique™

You know.. this one! ("Levi!" - from Sasuke 20)

Not taking any chances since NBC keeps harping on the Japanese that you can't skip balls or grab chains (even AFTER their protest once they saw people skipping balls and grabbing chains...) so he'll be damned if he goes out on a technicality.

No issues on dem ballz

On to the non-rotating door knobs

No issues on the Floridian door knobs

man he's tiny.. LOL

On to the Home Depot Firesale on Doors Hanging Boards

No issues here as he's moving at a nice pace

Matt Quotes™: This is the obstacle he was most intimidated by...

A cliffer.. intimidated by.. a 5 cm cliff they all made fun of when they saw it..

/sigh He can STAND on the damn thing it's so thick

The fact that he's not even pausing to jump between these..

even if Matt and Akbar have never seen how easy he does cliffs...

That's right. All in a day's work. He's cleared the 3 cm Crazy Cliff.. a 5 cm UCH is a friggin' joke.

Btw I'm laughing at the little ticks here and there they are adding to his time as he runs on the virtual timer on television.. 35 seconds between UCH and Jumping on this.. right.. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Quickly getting on the Ascending Climb Hang Climb

Using the rope.. LOL

No issues on the tin roof

Transition to the Spider Flip

And home free on to the Spider Flip

Random Crowd Shot™

Noticing a couple of things as this progresses..

Okay he's going up this thing and he was just about the top..

Then the cut away..

and magically 10 seconds were added..

You have to admit it's ingenious how they hide adding or subtracting time..

Now for the Flying Bar.

This time he recognizes his name. LOL

And another stock footage cutaway..

and voila.. another 43 seconds added.. seriously.. 43 seconds.. you have to be SHITTING me that he was just lollygagging for 43 seconds on that bar. Seriously.. stop what you are doing. Put a timer on and WAIT 43 seconds.. no way in hell he was up there for that long before attempting the obstacle. 10 seconds sure. 20 seconds.. pushing it but sure. 43??? HELL NO. And if you think this time isn't important.. just wait for Brian's run.

Pipe Slider technique™. Frankly I'm amazed it works on this. I think those who train like crazy for it (like Morimoto and Ryo) could get away with this technique. Anyone else who casually uses it will fall immediately on the first jump.

Clearing with ease (he failed here last year)

On the last one

sticks the landing

and quickly hits the buzzer even if he can't see any clock anywhere. (just ignore the timer. it's utterly pointless)

2nd Japanese to clear the 3rd stage. 3rd foreigner tonight!

Plausible!

Random Crowd Shot™

Replay of the rope balance leg thingie

and a partial standing Ovation before he even landed

And finally the celebration.

FINALLY a smile from Ryo!

My God he's so tiny...

Nice to see his smile again. The pressure on this guy is ridiculous. Especially after what happened in Stage 2.

Seriously.. he should be disqualified right here. NO SKIPPING. If they can't apply it to everyone they shouldn't apply it at all. They do that in Sasuke. You DQ they STOP you where you are. Period. No favoritism and they don't care if you are a Star.

So he continues and unlike Stefano who ended up balking and going through all 3.. Sean is above the rules and is allowed to continue even if he totally skipped.

LOL Look at Asa's WTF face watching Sean skip that first obstacle. They all look tentative. Even Vadym "wtf am I doing here" Kuvakin has a wtf face. Don't worry.. Rules don't apply to him so no need to worry about disqualification folks.

Onwards to the boards

doing just fine on them

and clear on the Hanging Boards

Stock footage on Ryo (more on that later) since apparently NBC is incapable of showing Japan actually cheer for anyone. God forbid they actually be good sportsman right? Btw I was asked recently if NBC uses stock footage for crowd shows and reaction shots. I thought it was obvious but apparently people are confused. YES they do it for "dramatic purposes" so yes choosing to paint one side worse than the other is intentional. Hell.. they do it for the Olympics.. you think they'd change for this? LOL

On to the UCH no one should miss for any reason.

high ledge

Ghisolfi grip™

whoops.. almost missed that. LOL

Clear on UCH

Random Crowd Shot™

Taking his time between obstacles.

Overshoots the propeller

Manages to catch the rope though

LOL Do I even have to post that he passed this? Giggles

On the the Spider Flip

And taking a long time to shake out his hands

though you can't tell from the clock

Cutaway with not clock right on cue

and across with no issues

And onto the Flying Bar

Taking time for the crowd (I'm told he grandstanded here. LOL He was pretty cocky. Hell on the preview for the 3rd stage he called it how Ssssuuuuuper easy this stage was).

Again.. why is NBC so insistent in making Japan look like assholes?

Seems the celebration for Sean was much shorter that Ryo's according to NBC.

And here we go!

On the 2nd set of rungs

aaaaaaaand down..

Miska wtf™

Shingo (his was too quick) then Team USA doing the shocked faces.

canad.. Europe eliminated from contention in this heat. They are still ahead. So USA can tie Europe with a win or Japan can get the 3 points and eliminate the USA.

LOL This was a funny face. Brian now has to clear the 3rd stage AND beat Ryo's time. No worries Brian, NBC got yo back yo.

LOL not my circle this time. He wasn't even using the Pipe Slider Grip and went in sideways.

and fell as a result

But I'm still da sexay..

That shot makes me want to throw an inner-tube in the water and float around. Giggles.

Reiterating the only way that anyone sees a final is if Brian wins..

man that title bugs the hell out of me...

Random Crowd Shot™

Incoming Fluff piece!

2013 in both ANW5 and the Japan special, Brian fell on the Flying bar

This year, cocky as hell and after that infamous hand hover incident.. (he wanted to control what order he ran in the 2nd so he purposely held his hand over the buzzer for almost 20 seconds running down the timer). To say it caused a stir is putting it mildly.

It was all for nothing anyway. He fell on the 2nd stage after losing time getting lost on the Rope Maze then rushing on the Unstable Bridge.

He's determined to not do the same mistake because he guarantees he will clear the 3rd stage.

Familycam™

LOL No need for the Morimoto tap™

.............................

another skip..

Back to back DQ's unenforced..

I'm trying hard (and failing) not to take it out on Brian. This is just so damn hard to watch.

Up to floating boards now

Clear on the Floating Boards

Onto the UCH

Again.. with the face of Ryo in Isolation. It's clear he's standing in a row and not in their chairs as you see Team Europe jackets just behind Asa (who has fresh tears of disappointment) and flash bulbs from the cameras. This is AFTER it was announced he was denied this heat. So, again, NBC making things look worse than they are for Japan for their benefit. It's important that NBC paints Japan as the villains for this charade to work. Even scarier that people BOUGHT what NBC was selling.

Back in time we are still on the UCH even if that Ryo shot was after the event was done.

Akbar Quotes™: Those ledges are just over 2 inches wide..

I had to cackle. 5 cm's.. that's too thick Akbar - you need to visit Sasuke and see the real one.

no wait.. on second thought.. I don't want Akbar in Japan.. forget I said anything.. LOL

For the record.. it wasn't even close.. at the CLOSEST it was 30 seconds to Ryo.. at the FURTHEST it was 40 seconds to Ryo. Ryo won by a landslide.. so if you want to know wtf these faces are all about.. yeah.. One can argue Morimoto lost.. but Ryo was outright ROBBED.

There was no way on God's green Earth that NBC was NOT going to show that Final. Even if they had to steal 1-2 results to get it.. they were going to.

People complained about not seeing the Final on ANW for 6 straight years.. and so help NBC they were going to do it by any means necessary. This is not a competition folks. It's a reality show. That's the message NBC is trying to say.

So instead of me cheering for Brian because he cleared the 3rd Stage for the first time (even if it wasn't in a row since no competitor was supposed to go more than twice in the event, but still this is still giving him credit for it), I'm too busy seething because NBC altered the results. They didn't rig it (that implies the competitors were accessories to the crime), they altered it after they ran. That's why they hid the timer and creatively edited those shots between to create the illusion of time being faster or slower.

Random Crowd Shot™

No one heard any klaxons. There were no visible timers. All they did was wait until the crowd died down and over a loudspeaker a disembodied voice would announce the result that such and such won the stage (heat). That's it. So I'm sure this is when the voice of USA/Arnold was heard over the loud speaker. To know you won by a huge margin.. to know you went fast on purpose, especially knowing that your teammate potentially was shafted.. knowing if it was even remotely close you'd lose to NBC politics but worked your ASS off to make sure they didn't fight for that tenth of a second.. to know that your reputation as an athlete is ruined by no fault of your own.. to know that people think you choked.. or you suck.. or you can't do a clutch performance.. to know that it didn't matter. what you did. THIS is what it looks like. This face wasn't because Arnold cleared. Notice that they never showed Japan cheering for all of those who cleared. No. NBC only showed the infuriating disappointment of knowing that this was because NBC was hellbent of showing that Final and move heaven and Earth to make it happen. Even if it meant completely altering history. This is not a sport to NBC. They can care less about fairness and sportsmanship. All backlash be damned they will fabricate drama for the sake of ratings. THIS is why I HATE NBC and AMERICAN Ninja Warrior. That is why I am boycotting them and have been for past 3 years. Ever since NBC took over it's turned into "this". This is why I hesitant to do this blog but did so because Morimoto begged me to do it. For him - even knowing what happened to HIM...

This is why Sasuke's spirit is infinitely superior to the decaying, putrid ideal that NBC calls "entertainment".
Nothing is sacred to NBC. Everyone is expendable to them. I personally find the level playing field of sportsmanship to be vastly superior
and infinitely more exciting when the human drama is allowed to be
displayed unfettered and unaltered. I don't need to be handheld and
told who I need to be cheering for. Sasuke gives me the opportunity to
cheer for whoever I want, regardless of what country they come from,
with the safety of knowing that the results were fair. If I wanted differently I FRICKING WATCH WIPEOUT. I applaud the
efforts of the rookies and veterans alike. In Arnold's case he sacrificed his family for the sake of the television show. They worked their asses off
to represent themselves and respective countries to the best of their
abilities. NBC had to ruin it by shitting all over it.

Next. The Final. I hope you like it because they just railroaded an entire country and their "esteemed guests" for your viewing pleasure. And yes. I already stated my case directly to TBS. I don't want Japan to ever return to ANW. Ever.

27 comments:

Wow....40 seconds. What a load of total bullshit. Honestly the only reason I will ever watch this show again is because there are still some cool competitors. Paul Kasemir coming to mind but really this "event" has just pissed me off.

"Sasuke gives me the opportunity to cheer for whoever I want, regardless of what country they come from, with the safety of knowing that the results were fair."

After the whole Backstream controversy and the recent Swap Salmon Ladder shenanigans, I am unconvinced that Sasuke is a "fair" competition. TBS is just as guilty of manipulating results, too.

I'm not defending NBC because what they did was wrong in terms of ethics and entertainment value. But I'm not going to get riled up about them when I've given Sasuke/TBS a pass for doing similarly shady stuff for years. I still watch Sasuke despite knowing that it's very likely rigged, which makes me complicit in supporting TBS's unethical practices. The brutal truth is that if I really cared about fair competition, I would have quit watching after the Backstream controversy. But I didn't.

I support the competitors, and rigged Sasuke and shitty ANW specials are better than not having them on TV at all. I hope they all got a nice paycheck and some new fans from the special.

Hey Band. That's my contention. The competitors aren't to blame. They didn't go into the video room and say "okay let's add x number of seconds to this competitor".

Karla. Sasuke has never fixed events. Ever. Tech problems and whatnot will happen in every event (hell it happened here in ANW with the famous Curtain Slider fails with the landing pad that took out half the competition. That is not what I'm talking about. I will continue to bitch with crappy obstacles. The issue HERE was a willful playing of the timer to the point that they had to HIDE it so people wouldn't complain. They didn't hide it in ANW so we know they relied on it to work for THAT competition but from the start they got rid of it just 24 hours later so they can rig this event. THAT should have been everyone's red flag. It was good enough to have the timer for ANW6 but not for the International event? Right.. Pull the other one. Sasuke, when they have tech issues they rerun competitors. Swap Salmon they stop ALL competitors if they go sideways (they don't care if they are All-stars or not, nor do they care if it infuriates people of how stupid it looks). TBS already knows I hate the 2nd stage and they are trying to work on it but still pass H&S standards. THIS is not the problem going on in this event.

I support the competitors as well. I never did say that and if you read that damn blog you'd know that. And for the record they don't get a nice paycheck. Just the rock climbers got that.

Hey Boiling. Oh they got the message. :) Trust me. They got the message. I can confirm that.

Z - yes. I should have been either 6/6/6 or 9/6/3. Either way it was not the 9/9/0 that they purported it to be.

NKV - I know. I however understand and respect the reach ANW has. Many of the ANW fans are new and they still fight me on the Brent incident from 3 years ago! LOL They will believe what they want because it's entertaining to them without understanding the selfishness in their reasoning. If Joe's comment in the previous page is any indication, it's a common theme provided THEY are painted with a good brush. Heh, if I had any issues with Joe before this, they are worse now.

I know when listening to the arguments "For" ANW and my "Against" argument on this blog, people see as if I'm attacking "THEM". It becomes personal to them as if I'm attacking their values or something. I find it frustrating because that's not what I am saying at all. It's the NBC institution that is doing this. It's not even the ANW producers on the ground (though I take exception to some of their comments on social media as of late) it's what happens between the taping and airing that concerns me. THIS event was unique because it happened in REAL time to the point where it literally took TBS' breath away. The brazenness of the altering. When TBS complained RIGHT after Asa they told them to sit down and shut up the rules will be enforced. When they asked AGAIN about the skipping balls they were told they were following the rules. When they asked about both times they were told "well.. they did lose by 3 seconds and 0.3 seconds".. then a few months later we see the travesty before the television. They weren't even consistent with what they told TBS!

As for Joe, that's an attack on him personally on the comments section because he "went there". I don't know him and I commented on what was on the screen. Now with his comment it only solidified what I thought of him and it's not good. I don't place him as high on my list as Iketani (he's Olympic extraordinary while Joe is a wannabe) but that list is growing. Sad really. He doesn't even know he proved my point about ANW and the spirit that is pervasive there. LOL He can't see past his ego.

And Morimoto's result HE wasn't even sure even though I told him the times I was given (a couple up to 3 and and another 1 second behind so there wasn't even consensus with that). Morimoto was perfectly fine with accepting the defeat because the glory of being first to clear in a course he was told he'd never conquer because he's short far outweighed the political implications. So correct, there wasn't any consensus.

Great job, especially on exposing the absolute travesties committed by NBC.

So I decided to watch the USA vs the World special after seeing your blog. I guess I just had to see some of the bulls*** for myself to believe it.

my thoughts:

1. I see you mean when you said Miska needs to work on his speed in Stage 1. His form was good for the most part, just didn't go at a fast enough pace (being unfamiliar to the course also hurt). But I think in SASUKE's first stage, with the 105 second time limit, if he doesn't make fatal mistakes (eg. rushing the Hedgehog, pacing up and down the Warped Wall), and doesn't try to make a time attack out of it and rush through (Ryo and Asa in SASUKE 30), he has quite a good chance of passing Stage 1.

2. NBC not DQing the Team Europe and Team USA competitors for skipping balls reminds me of a similar incident earlier in ANW 6 involving Moravsky. He was doing the Rumbling Dice in the finals course and was swinging with so much momentum (as he turned the dice) that he pulled one side of the dice off the track. And yet, NBC let him continue and he completed the course. I remember seeing that and thinking "if that was SASUKE Stage 3, it's an immediate DQ, regardless of whoever did it." NBC even went on to say things like 'he completed the course despite breaking the rumbling dice' for publicity. Just another example of NBC's bad decisions.(video link for Joe's run: http://tv.esquire.com/videos/71332-joe-moravsky-at-the-american-ninja-warrior-2014-st-louis-finals)

3. My opinions on Asa, and now that you mentioned it, Kanno (both not cut out for international competition) have been further reinforced.

4. First Morimoto, now Ryo. Two robberies in one night for Team Japan, shame on NBC.

5. Racist dub just made me feel disgusted. Not just annoyed, disgusted. I didn't expect it to be that bad.

6. I would watch ASEAN open cup over this bs any day. Hopefully it happens next year!

Why are you so sure they're "hiding" timer changes? If someone sits on a ledge for 40 seconds to make sure they're rested enough to make it through the very last obstacle, should the broadcast show all 40 seconds of them doing nothing?

Camera cuts happen all the time on Stage 3 in Sasuke; it just has never been a problem because the course wasn't ever timed. Honestly, I had thought (when watching Sasuke over the past few years) that competitors got maybe a minute or so to rest before obstacles, then someone would tell them, "Okay, you have to start the next obstacle now."

Seriously, watch Stage 3 for any Sasuke competition. Every time someone completes an obstacle, they cut away to a crowd shot, and very often, the runner takes a long time to rest (e.g., Nagano before the Cliff Hanger in Sasuke 21 or Yuuji before the UCH in Sasuke 27).

I'm not trying to be contrary here for its own sake, and I'm not denying that NBC probably tweaked some things on their end. I wasn't in the competition and I don't have the information to dispute that. However, your bias is extremely clear here (like complaining about this shot when Sean was doing well, but completely ignoring the same type of shot here when Ryo was doing well).

None of these things excuse rules exceptions or course changes or any of the other ways the Japanese team wasn't given a fair shot. I know that, and I'm not arguing with that. But, from an unbiased viewer like me or any casual fan, it's not at all clear that the times were tweaked. If they were, they were, and that's that. But without inside information like you have, I'm not convinced.

I'm aware of that Gamer and I understand entirely. I unfortunately can't change it. I'm just the messenger. This is basically Brent incident from 3 years ago all over again but "bigger" since it affected the outcome of the event. Those who don't believe what I wrote won't ever believe me and there's nothing I can do about it. It is insider information so I respect that you are wary of it.

Like anything else and I say this to everyone who loves ANW. You are perfectly fine loving ANW. The course. The people. The spirit. I'm an unabashed Sasuke fan and it pains me to see what NBC has done to the original format. From ascending timers, to head to head match ups to poorly constructed obstacles under a pretty coat of paint. I chose to not watch that version 3 years ago (because of the Brent incident). I only follow the Japan show and where their travels take them. So I'm doing this one kicking and screaming (mostly screaming.. LOL). However, it was because Yuusuke wanted me to do it is because I'm here. Most people wouldn't know any of this stuff had it not that I had the balls (and I"m a girl) to write them out so obviously people will be upset. Some appreciate that I'm making light of the politics. Others are pissed that I'm not just letting it slide because they enjoyed it. Regardless I won't please everyone. I just have to stay true to my blog style and when I write about something I write having done my homework and asking the questions that needed to be asked. Sometimes I get it wrong and sometimes I get it right. So far these blogs have been up for almost a month now and no one is contesting the show results were altered. Joe can complain about the rules not being applied even to the Japanese and I'm contesting that he's only proving my point. Regardless, nothing changes the fact that NBC fudged with the results.

The rumor was fake. I heard about it when it started. Not sure who started it. I asked Inui personally and he shot down the rumor immediately (back in June when it started). TBS is not doing an ANW rematch. That is NBC's property and format and TBS is not interested in doing it... especially after what happened this year. Not sure why it was started other than hopeful wishing.

Off topic but where is Levi and Drew in these? Levi is probably the best american the course has seen (In season 2 or 3 during boot camp he had to do this one relay twice and both his times were the top 2 fastest) and Drew is really fast.

Arsenette... None of us care where you put us on your "list". We are TV personalities AND athletes. You sit on your computer and judge us because you have nothing better to do. It's sad that you can't support us or your country.

Don't read my blog then. Simple as that. I have an opinion and nothing you have said in your "defense" has changed my opinion of you. In fact, I didn't have an opinion of you before, however, I have one now. I don't like you. You are petty and try to change people's opinion of you simply because you don't like criticism. Get used to the fact that when you get on International television that people will form opinions of you based on your actions and how you present yourself. You are your own worst enemy. You can move on now. Everyone else has..